Ministry contacts drowned Trini’s family

The Foreign Affairs Ministry has reached out to the family of Melan June Salvary-Doyle, who is the first Trini confirmed killed by Hurricane Irma when she drowned when the monster storm lashed St Martin a week ago. Salvary-Doyle was at the time visiting relatives in St Martin. Salvary-Doyle’s sister Emily Pasqual yesterday told Newsday that her daughter Alena received a telephone call from a ministry official on Tuesday evening requesting information about her (Salvary-Doyle) living arrangements on the island before the tragedy occurred.

“I figured they wanted to start to work on locating the body but we have not heard anything from them since then (up to news time),” Pasqual said. Pasqual said the family also learnt from a family friend that a local military extraction team was being sent to St Martin to assist with relief efforts.

“So, we are hoping that he would get some information to assist on the ground about what is happening with the body.” Salvary-Doyle, 64, and her grandson Oliver Robert-Gedio, three, drowned after being pulled into the sea during Irma’s onslaught on St Martin last week.

The woman who lived in San Fernando, was visiting her daughter Daphne (Oliver’s mother), at the time of the tragedy. Daphne lived at 32 A Rue Round The Pond French Quarters. Daphne was not at home at the time of the incident.

Pasqual said the family was told that when the house that Salvary-Doyle was in began falling apart after Irma made landfall in St Martin, she and the rest of the family decided to leave for another house a short distance away. She said as Salvary-Doyle and her grandson were about to reach the house came in and the waves took them.